Day 3 of Recovery

Day 3 of recovery was to be my last day in hospital as I had been told I would be discharged at some point during the day. I was woken up at 2:30am by one of the nurses to take my obs and I still felt ill. At 4:15am I woke up again, still feeling sick, and thought I would see if brushing my teeth helped by taking away the nasty taste in my mouth. It didn't take the taste away and it didn't help so I just crawled back into bed and tried my best to get some more sleep.

My swelling was still pretty minimal.

I dozed off for a very short time but at 6:30am the nurse came to administer my last round of IV antibiotics, which I managed to take without crying! I then had half a vegetable cup-a-soup to try and settle my stomach and managed to get back to sleep until 8:30am.

At 8:30am I got up and got dressed in real clothes as I had been told I was definitely being discharged that morning! My jaws were achey and stiff but not painful so I felt okay to go home, as I thought I would be able to deal with the nausea better using hot water bottles etc. (which the hospital didn't have).

Dad waiting for the nurse to tell me I could leave.

At 10am Dad arrived and the nurse discharged me with a massive carrier bag full of plastic syringes, build up soups, fortisips and fortijuices. Having the canula removed didnt hurt at all but it did keep bleeding (but only tiny amounts) for quite a long time. My medication wasn't ready at that point but seeing as we live so close the nurse said she would phone Dad that afternoon and he could come back to collect it. The walk down to the car park was exhausting and the car journey was almost as tiring trying to keep my head supported.

When I got home I had half a can of Sainsbury's broccoli and stilton soup (watered down) and it was absolute bliss to taste something familiar. I felt much better being home and so Nan and my uncle came to visit bearing cards and flowers. As Mom arranged the flowers in a vase next to me I realised I could smell them really strongly! I'd never really had a strong sense of smell before and never can I remember being able to smell flowers so this was really amazing for me. It was the first time it hit me that my jaw surgery did more than just improve the shape of my face.

The improvements I was already noticing included a better face shape (obviously), a normal sense of smell, the ability to breathe through my nose, less laboured breathing and no more snoring!

Looking VERY shiny and pale but not too swollen.

After Nan and Poss' visit I had a square of jelly melted to form a drink and then went upstairs for a nap. I slept from 2:30 until 4:30pm but woke up feeling really sick. My other Nan popped in for a visit but I felt too ill to be any form of good company. Rich came round too but had to fetch Mom at one point because I was retching and gagging so much it was making me cry. I felt AWFUL but Rich played me song after song on YouTube to distract me and the combination of that and lying very still all curled up on my bed slowly started to make me feel better.

Not feeling great.

At about 10pm I decided to try brushing my teeth and having something to eat as maybe it was an empty stomach causing my nausea. I tried to brush my teeth but it was too difficult because of my swollen cheeks and I ended up crying into the sink because I couldn't brush the inside of my teeth. At this point in my recovery I was an absolute emotional wreck.

I came downstairs and Mom gave me my oral antibiotics, which were disgusting and tasted like jelly babies but a million times more so. I had a vegetable cup-a-soup to take the taste away and that made me feel a bit better so me, Mom and Rich watched Room 101 and Have I Got News For You before I made my way up to bed at about midnight.